A tiller or steering arm has been frequently used to control the direction of a steerable marine drive having a pendant drive unit which is selectively rotatable about a substantially vertical axis. Such drive unit generally provides a selectively driven propeller to provide a steering thrust to the boat. In addition, some constructions have employed a pivotal vane having a surface within the slip stream of the propeller to apply torque upon the vane surface and provide a turning movement to the inter-connected drive unit.
One or more cables have generally been used to connect a steering control or helm to the drive unit to control the rotation of the pivotal vane and/or the steering arm. Such cables may have cores or internal rods which move either axially or circumferentially to control the pivotal position of the vane and/or steering arm, such as in the Broadwell U.S. Pat. No. 3,149,605; the Kirkwood U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,878; the U.S. application Ser. No. 06/106,833 entitled "Vane Steering System For Marine Drives" filed on Dec. 26, 1979 by Edward John Morgan and Neil Allan Rohan, and assigned to a common assignee herewith; and the U.S. application Ser. No. 06/139,001 entitled "Marine Drive Vane Steering System" filed on Apr. 10, 1981 by Russell F. Ginnow, and assigned to a common assignee herewith.
One system provides a rigid rotatable rod to inter-connect the steering control to the rotatable vane, such as in the Conover U.S. Pat. No. 2,993,464.